American Casino

September 18 – 24

Fri 7:15 Sat 2:45 7:15 Sun 8:10 Mon & Tues 8:15 Wed & Thurs 6:10

(US / 2009 / dir. by Leslie Cockburn)

Eight years after Congress rolled back regulation on Wall Street, courtesy of Senator Phil Gramm’s Commodities Futures Modernization Act, the world economy imploded in an international credit crunch, trapping American homeowners and taxpayers under its wreckage.

As predicted by one expert, this “freed Wall Street to essentially shoot itself in both feet.” Before it deals with the disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street, the film offers candid revelations from defectors from Bear Stearns and Standard & Poor’s and other high-level players who explain the basis of the subprime mortgage bubble. On the flipside, the Cockburns give a voice to the Americans on “Main Street”-a high school teacher, a therapist, a minister- who were the unwitting victims in this high-stakes game of chicken. We see how foreclosure and property neglect have led to the spread of drugs, crime, and disease. And, lest we forget, the film reminds us that it’s the Main Street Americans who are now bailing out the financial institutions responsible for the fall.